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The 2016 annual meeting will be in Toronto and the NPC is looking to see if there are any barriers to going to an international meeting in Toronto that normally wouldn’t be a barrier if the meeting was withing the continental U.S.

Obviously people traveling to the meeting in Toronto will need an updated passport. Plan early to get your passport if you don’t already have one. Also check its expiration date, sometimes you may not be able to travel on a passport that is set to expire within three months.

The one nice thing is that the US dollar is stronger than the Canadian dollar so that gives us little bit of a “discount” when buying things over there. However that usually isn’t realized on air travel and the cost of flights really depends on the airports. For example, Cleveland is one of the more expensive airports to fly out of, so airfares for me are often painful. We all have budget issues to consider, I don’t think Toronto being an international conference is on the same cost level as an international conference overseas. Based on a very brief look at the expenses, it doesn’t appear the cost to be any more or less of a barrier then one would typically encounter going to MLA.

I am not saying cost isn’t important, but my blog post today is more focused on the barriers unique to an international meeting. One such barrier that may be related to this meeting is the permission or the ability to attend an international meeting. Some hospitals, government entities, and other places will not fund travel to an international meeting (even if international is within North America and is closer than flying to San Francisco). In this case the barrier is the fact that it is an international meeting and the institution will not fund international meetings. So it isn’t the amount of the trip that is the barrier, but the fact that the institution will not pay for the trip at all.

Do you typically attend MLA? If you typically attend, will you have some problems attending a conference in Toronto because it is international or will it be just fine? Please make a comment and let us know. I know the NPC would like to try and address any issues ahead of time.

The Joseph Leiter NLM/MLA Lecture will be on Thursday June 12, 2014 at 1:00pm ET online http://videocast.nih.gov and on the campus of the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.

Terrence Sejnowski, PhD, will discuss “The BRAIN Initiative: Connecting the Dots.”
Dr. Sejnowski is a pioneer in computational neuroscience and his goal is to understand the principles that link brain to behavior. He is interested in the hippocampus, believed to play a major role in learning and memory; and the cerebral cortex, which holds our knowledge of the world and how to interact with it. His laboratory uses both experimental and modeling techniques to study the biophysical properties of synapses and neurons and the population dynamics of large networks of neurons. New computational models and new analytical tools have been developed to understand how the brain represents the world and how new representations are formed through learning algorithms for changing the synaptic strengths of connections between neurons. By studying how the resulting computer simulations can perform operations that resemble the activities of the hippocampus, Dr. Sejnowski hopes to gain new knowledge of how the human brain is capable of learning and storing memories. This knowledge ultimately may provide medical specialists with critical clues to combating Alzheimer’s disease and other disorders that rob people of the critical ability to remember faces, names, places and events.
(from NIH website)

If you are in or nearby Bethesda, I highly recommend going because it is always interesting to hear the lecturer speak in person. But if you are in Cleveland or some other place that makes it impossible for you to physically be at the lecture, then you can watch it online. If for some reason you can’t watch it live then don’t worry the lecture will be recorded and available at http://videocast.nih.gov.

It is crunch time and I know everybody going to MLA 14 in Chicago is scrambling to tie up lose ends at work or for Chicago. But as you go over your schedule for MLA you might want to check out the McGovern Lecturer, Dr. Aaron Carroll’s blog or his Facebook page. Dr. Carroll has invited MLA members and attendees to begin a conversation with him in advance of the annual meeting on topics of interest by posting on his blog, friending him on Facebook, following him on Twitter, or emailing him.

For his lecture, Dr Carrol will be addressing issues on the Affordable Care Act and health care policy. His blog, “The Incidental Economist: Contemplating health care with a focus on research, an eye on reform,” is “mostly about the U.S. health care system and its organization, how it works, how it fails us, and what to do about it.” Dr Carroll is one of the Editors in Chief of the blog which also has several contributors who have “professional expertise in an area relevant to the health care system” as researchers and professors in health economics, law and other health service areas.

The Affordable Care Act and its impact on libraries and how librarians can help hospitals deal with certain aspects of it is a bit of a interest for me. I have taught several classes to library groups in the past year about librarians can better align their goals to that of the hospital. Since many hospitals goals are now focused around parts of the Affordable Care Act it makes sense that medical libraries develop strategies to support their institution’s Affordable Care Act goals.

For example…How can the medical library help the hospital

Prevent readmissions

Increase focus on preventive care

Improve patient satisfaction

Deal with Meaningful Use (not exactly ACA but very entwined)

Depending on the focus of the library or librarian, we might be able to help more than we or our administration realize. Here is what some libraries are doing already…

Partnering with IT or CIO to provide evidence based medicine resources within the EMR

Partnering with IT or CIO to make sure that order sets are based on best available evidence

Help provide patient education documents and information and make them accessbile to patients through the patient portal

Work with doctors to provide a prescription for health information to the patient through the EMR

Not only is it important the librarians do these things to help their institutions (BTW no one librarian can do it all but they should be doing something) achieve their goals, but it is equally important that we need to be MEASURING our impact. If we don’t measure it, it didn’t happen. Measuring can be tricky but it is necessary, especially if you want to keep your library and your job. Gone are the days where you can say I did 103 MEDLINE searches for doctors and that helped them treat patients. Really? How do you know those MEDLINE searches helped them? Did you ask what became of the search? Did you track how your information was being used? All you know is that you did 103 searches. You don’t know whether that was a benefit to the institution or not. We assume it was, but administration doesn’t assume anything.

I am looking forward to hearing Dr. Carroll speak. But before I see him at MLA, I am going to try and start to engage with him to find out what we librarians can do to help our institutions deal with the ACA and make our ourselves more valuable to the institution. I encourage everyone else to do the same with their own thoughts and questions prior to MLA.

Every other year at the annual meeting MLA used to hold the Section Shuffle where each of the sections would man a table and talk to members about their section. Often there were themes and the sections would dress up or have candy and little prizes at the their table to try and entice members over to their table so that they could talk about everything the section is doing and encourage the member to join their section.

Section Council and Chapter Council decided to conduct a survey to determine what members were getting out of Section Shuffle, why people became a member of a Section or Chapter, why they continued (or didn’t) to be a member, and whether there could be alternatives to the Section Shuffle.

To sum the survey up….

Members found the Shuffle to be too crowded

Some did not like the food at the Shuffle or there wasn’t enough of it

Members weren’t always able to get in depth information they about the Sections due to the crowded and chaotic nature of the Shuffle

While members may have signed up during the Shuffle…Section engagement was the driving factor for renewal

So the Section and Chapter Council decide to change things up this year. Instead of a Shuffle, Section and Chapter will be staffing posters during Poster Session 1 on Sunday May 18th highlighting their activities and unique characteristics at MLA ’14 in Chicago. Posters for participating Sections and Chapters will be on display at the MLA Registration Center. While the posters will be staffed during Poster Session 1 they will remain on display throughout MLA ’14 so members can drop by and learn more about the Sections and Chapters any time during the conference.

I have found Sections and Chapters to be a great way to get involved in MLA and my participation in my Sections and Chapters has significantly enriched my MLA membership experience. So I encourage everyone to stop by a poster and join a Section and/or Chapter.

Do you know somebody who is innovative, inspiring, and basically would make a great leader within MLA? Well time to step up and take action. The MLA Nominating Committee is identifying potential candidates for the 2014/15 election. That means if you know of somebody you think would be good as a Board Member or President, then you need to submit their name (or yours), current current curriculum vitae and a paragraph outlining why the recommended person (or you) would be a good candidate.

This information must be sent to one of the members of the Nominating Committee (see below) by May 12th.

This is the perfect opportunity for you to help shape the future of MLA.

The 2014 Nominating Committee members have reviewed the job descriptions for President Elect/President/Past President and Board members, and have discussed key qualifications needed for candidates, including a person who has *broad experience within MLA, significant professional achievements, a great capacity for leadership, a vision of the future of health sciences libraries, and an infectious enthusiasm for the excitement of librarianship at the present time*. The Nominating Committee also discussed the importance of diversity in selecting the slate – key issues to consider are geographic region, library or information service type, and amount of experience.

Please read through the process for selecting candidates and electing the MLA president-elect and members of the MLA Board http://www.mlanet.org/members/pdf/2009_bylaws.pdf (pages 2–3 MUST be MLA member and logged in to MLANET to read this document).

The slate will contain at least two candidates for president-elect (president during 2016/17) and at least four candidates for the two vacant board positions (2015–2018).

At this year’s annual meeting the final party will be slightly different. It is a “Party with a Purpose.”

National Planning Committee is hosting a Silent Auction and the goal is to highlight the creative talents, passions (rare books, memorabilia) and other interests of attendees. Proceeds will benefit the MLA Scholarship fund, Section Project of the Year award, and the Chicago adult literacy organization Literacy Works (www.litworks.org/mission_and_history.html).

Ways you can donate…and what the NPC is looking for:

Do you have gift cards from places that you will never use? Example: I hate coffee, Starbucks gift cards are wasted on me, so I would donate any I have.

Do you have season tickets to the theater, orchestra, sports teams? Are you really able to make every one of those dates? If not consider donating them.

Time shares, frequent flier points tickets/stays, etc. might also be good to donate.

Are you crafty (no not Krafty) and have jewelry, clothing, art, etc. that you can donate? Come on MLA I know there are a ton of knitters out there. How about donating a knitting basket or a cool throw?

Did you get an extra iPad or some other new technology that you don’t use for Christmas/birthday that you just haven’t gotten around to selling on eBay. Donate it to the the party.

YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE TO BE GOING TO MLA TO HELP!
You can still fill out the form and ship your item(s) to MLA (to arrive before May 6th) or ship them directly to the winner!

If the item is to be shipped directly to the winner you will want to take a picture or do something visual so that people can see what they are bidding on.

Examples:

If you have season tickets that haven’t been distributed yet, be creative an make dummy versions that indicate the event, location, seats, and date/time with a note that the official tickets will be shipped to the winner.

If you have a time share, include pictures of the time share and information including it location, dates, time and any other important information.

For more information read the FAQ from the NPC about donating items to Party with a Purpose.

Either I am getting used to working with the online planner or it is getting a lot better. Perhaps a little bit of both.

As we have noticed in the past, your browser could impact your experience with the program planner. So I want to let you all know that primarily I used Firefox 27.0 as my browser when I went to the planner site and logged in. I did also call up my schedule using Explorer 9.0 and Chrome 33.0 but I only called them up once I had selected things. While they displayed just fine in Explorer and Chrome I did not have the opportunity to play around with how it worked in those two browsers as I selected things.

Register first so that as you make selections it saves them to your account. Once you are done selecting events click on My Plan – Sessions, then you can download it as an iCalendar file which can be uploaded to your favorite calendar program. I use Google Calendar.

*Tip* Between 2 adults in a family with 3 kids, work schedules, other shared calendars, and other life events my Google Calendar has A LOT of information. So I don’t clutter up the rest of my calendar I created an MLA 2014 calendar under My calendars in Google Calendar. I gave it a really obnoxious purple color too so that it is obvious it is MLA stuff.

I imported the iCalendar file into my Google Calendar under MLA 2014 calendar and everything went in nicely in bright purple.

Things To Know:

You need your registration badge to login every time. I understand this to verify meeting attendees to access the planner, but I do wish we could later change this to a customized password for use later. I will just get to know my badge number for a while.

Posters are treated different than Sessions. I recommend first selecting all of the sessions you wish to attend (click the star) then go into posters (I personally like viewing them by Session Time) and select the posters. There is no way to get the posters to download as an iCalendar file to upload into your calendar. In the past I have put poster numbers in my calendar but it really clutters things up, I am experimenting with uploading them as an Excel file that I will save in Dropbox and call up as needed.

You cannot add an events to the program planner that are not already on the site. In other words you cannot add that killer vendor party that you are dying to go to. HOWEVER, you can easily add the killer vendor party to your calendar. So after you have imported the program planner into your calendar of choice, go into your calendar and simply add that party yourself. I already did this in Google Calendar for a few after parties and it is easy. Hardest thing for me was to add it under my MLA 2014 calendar I created not my default calendar.

If you are not in Central Time, then watch out for your calendar automatically switching times to “help” you. I wish I could give you pointers on how to make sure this doesn’t happen but I am only successful at preventing this about 50% of the time. I am able to fix it once it happens but it usually involves some swearing and random troubleshooting. Perhaps somebody will leave a comment as to how to prevent this problem. I only bring it up so that you are aware.

Sync your calendar one last time before you leave for the meeting. I noticed that some of the sessions I want to attend don’t have room names yet. I know that information will come. The main reason I am already fussing with the program planner is to figure out any conflicting sessions.

Finally, don’t be afraid to chuck your schedule at MLA. If you are having a great in depth conversation with a vendor or librarian then feel free to stick with it and not run off to the next session. If you are dog tired and need to take a nap during the middle of the day so you can finish out strong…sleep away. I see way too many people with their heads buried in their planners running to the next meeting. The programs, meetings, and posters are important, but it is also important to stop and smell the roses or talk to somebody. Another big part of MLA is the people and if you are busy running off to every event, you miss the people.

I just renewed my MLA membership and registered for the annual meeting in Chicago. While my annual meeting expenses will be reimbursed, my membership is not. Quite frankly it always hurts to see that much money leave my account at one time regardless of whether it is work related or fun like a vacation. I am cheap. My kids know all too well I am always looking for deals or ways to save money.

First: If there is no way on God’s green Earth that you can afford or physically be able to attend MLA in Chicago, seriously consider attending online by registering with the e-Conference attendance. At $120, it is a pretty good deal and is half the cost of one night in the hotel.

Second: Find a roommate. Even though my institution reimburses me, I am asked to find a roommate. I find the majority of the meeting expense is the hotel and splitting it with at least one person helps a lot.

Third: While I love staying at the conference hotel, I also realize that isn’t always an option. Sometimes the rooms are too expensive or sometimes they are sold out. Find a cheaper hotel or go on AirBnB. I found several places to stay on AirBnB in Chicago from $10-$150.

Fourth: Get a conference only registration. This saves about $160 off of the registration price. Now that means you will not be able to attend some of the receptions that include food and networking opportunities. So you will need to figure out your own cheaper food and networking opportunities to make the savings count. Don’t let your conference package savings get lost on the cost of getting meals that the receptions normally would provide.

Fifth: There are a lot of ways to eat well and save money at MLA. Buy snacks and breakfast stuff at CVS, Walgreens, or a nearby grocery store. That food is always cheaper than what you pay for at a restaurant or in the hotel. Go to Sunrise Seminars. Not only are they informative but they often have food. There are also some vendor seminars that are during lunch time that have food. There aren’t a lot of them and they are trickier to find and often require an RSVP in advance. Go to vendor parties for your dinner. I love food, I don’t skip meals and I found I have never gone hungry at MLA and my food budget is very very small. I also have stopped buying snacks and breakfast stuff at the local grocery store. I found I often didn’t eat it because there were other food events for me to attend that sounded more appetizing than my CVS bagel.

Sixth: Apply for a travel award from every section, group, etc. that you belong to. Many travel awards are graded based on the applicants’ need to be at MLA. So submit a paper or poster to MLA to show that you are contributing to MLA as well as needing financial assistance. Obviously it is too late to submit a paper or poster for this MLA, but do it for the next one. If it gets accepted and you still can’t go (btw institutions are more apt to fund somebody presenting) then you can ask to be removed. It sucks but it isn’t the end of the world.

Seventh: Try budgeting a year in advance. I have Browns season tickets…they cost me a pretty penny each year. Every May like clockwork the Browns organization wants their pound of flesh. If I had to come up with that money all at once I would be dead. Instead I have created a Browns account that I put $200 in every month. By the time May rolls around I have $2400 ready to send and while I hate to see it leave my account, I don’t feel the pinch. If people buy my tickets, I direct the deposit to that account. I have also created an MLA account that operates much the same way as my Browns account. I auto deposit a relatively small amount every month into that account and by the time MLA rolls around I am set.

I love going to MLA. Not only do I consider it a professional activity but it is also fun. While it isn’t a vacation exactly, I find I am refreshed and looking at librarianship in different ways….almost as if I was on a real vacation. OK I’m a nerd…I kind of think of it as a vacation.

You are invited submit an abstract for a paper or poster that reflects on the best ideas for the future of information practices in health sciences librarianship at the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting, May 16–21, 2014, Chicago. To begin, review the paper/poster FAQs at: http://mlanet.org/am/am2014/sect_prog/index.html, then begin the online submission process. Avoid the last-minute rush and submit your abstract before November 1st.

Be inspired to think how you can be an architect of a health information landscape that responds to the challenges of growth and an ever-evolving environment. How will you design your blueprint for the information future? What tools will you need? What skills will be required? How will you know if what you construct is useful? The MLA Annual Meeting will offer you an opportunity to plan and style an information future that reflects expanding roles to reach new heights.

Join your colleagues for MLA’14 in Chicago and build your information future at the largest meeting of medical librarians and health sciences information professionals in the world! In January, preliminary programs will be mailed to MLA members and meeting registration will officially open. For more information see: http://mlanet.org/am/am2014/index.html

Wow there were a lot of bloggers who wrote great stuff at MLA 2013. I tried to attend as much as I can but of course I can’t hit everything so I have come to really enjoy reading the Official Meeting Blog after the meeting to review the things I wasn’t able to attend. I have taken it upon myself to organize the posts from the blog into some general categories and I thought I would share them. (I am such a librarian I am organizing blog posts…sigh..)

The organization is very rough. I tried to group like posts on the same topic together, but I am sure I made some mistakes. I also added some extra details such as the section program title on some of the blog titles where it wasn’t immediately obvious as to what it referred to.

One thing to remember…. The e-Conference stuff is not just for those who paid for the e-Conference. Those who physically attended the conference can also access all of the great stuff online using their badge number.